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#MakeupMonday: The Makeup Tool I Can’t Do Without

Ok, technically it’s Thursday but it’s been a big week. The Sexual Harassment Survey continues to fill; we’re now at 1760 entries, and I’ve received over 150 emails sharing the names of perpetrators (oftentimes more than one name per email, by the way, with no significant overlap among names so far. When I do see multiple victims name the same perpetrator, I intend to ask if they’d like to be put in touch). I’ve been interviewed repeatedly about the Survey, most recently by the Wall Street Journal. Reporters seem to be stunned and horrified. And why wouldn’t they be?

Anyway, that has been consuming.

And then the Alabama election. There’s so much to say about that, but I’ll limit myself to this observation–>

So it’s Thursday when my Monday post goes up. Ah well… it’s OK, because this may be the last one for awhile.* That doesn’t mean I won’t do more (for example, I recently upgraded my blush–and I had one expensive misstep, and one completely free solution!), but the arc I imagined ended here, with the makeup tool that has transformed my makeup life.

This product is so marvelous! When I first started seriously doing makeup, especially eye makeup that required lots of different small brushes, I would inevitably end up fumbling and dropping them all over the dresser and the floor.

A little fur… a little poop…

It is one of my struggles in life that I absolutely, pathologically, cannot stand to fumble objects. I go completely ballistic. I lose my shit. This is in fact the reason that I will only use cordless vacuums. One too many sobbing jags trying to get the cord past the table leg….and I was…. just…. “that’s it, i’m out.” And for a decade cordless is how it’s been. Amazingly, only in the last two months did I finally get a Dyson. With two rabbits just now, and their collective fur, hay, and bunny poops everywhere, something needed to be done. Yeah, the Dyson deserves the hype, I have to admit.

But anyway, back to makeup. My struggle to juggle the makeup and the brushes, all while leaning into the magnifying mirror, in the midst of the chaos that always prevails on my dresser-top… well, makup just wasn’t fun anymore; it was becoming an exercise in frustration.

But as we know there are few logistical frustrations in life that a little shopping won’t solve, so of course I turned to Amazon, and lo, these wrist-thingies exist.

Now, reviewers on Amazon seem much more excited by the fact that it is covered in that brush-cleaning spongey material, than that it is a super-convenient way to hold your brushes in the morning before coffee. I’m not sure why that is. I do like and use the brush-cleaning spongey stuff, but it’s not a deal-breaker. I have the same spongey stuff in a little canister as well (I found it at TJ Maxx for a couple bucks) and sure, it’s great! I love it! It means you can reuse the same brush with a different color, right away! Super convenient!

But for me the real draw of the wrist-thingie is: no fumbling. Every brush I need is right there when I need it.

And a day that doesn’t begin with me dropping things is a day that is at least starting out halfway decent. Even if Miyako remarks, appalled, “Mom! What even is that?? Only makeup artists use those!”

I highly recommend!

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*My regular intro:

Welcome to Makeup Monday, my weekly series on makeup; academic and postacademic job market and productivity posts will continue on Tuesday and Friday as usual.

Here is my weekly reminder: I will not engage with makeup-shaming here or on any Facebook or Twitter comment threads. I support your right to not wear makeup, and anyone who dislikes makeup, disapproves of makeup, or wants to argue that no academic woman should be judged on the basis of makeup (which nobody is claiming anyway), I suggest you come back for my other posts on other topics.

About Karen Kelsky

I am a former tenured professor at two institutions--University of Oregon and University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. I have trained numerous Ph.D. students, now gainfully employed in academia, and handled a number of successful tenure cases as Department Head. I've created this business, The Professor Is In, to guide graduate students and junior faculty through grad school, the job search, and tenure. I am the advisor they should already have, but probably don't.